Montenegro Releases Census Data

Fewer than half of Montenegro’s inhabitants are Montenegrins, according to census figures released by the Statistical Office.

Tanjug

While 45 percent of the country’s residents declared themselves to be Montenegrins, nearly 30 percent said they were Serbs.

The language numbers were also skewed toward Serbs. While 37 percent of the country’s 625,266 inhabitants said they speak Montenegrin, about 44 per cent speak Serbian.

The overall population has grown by some 5,000 people since the last census was conducted in 2003, according to the Statistical Office.

Beside Montenegrins and Serbs, other ethnicities currently in the country include Albanians (4.9 per cent), Bosnians (8.6 per cent), Muslims (3.3 per cent), Roma (1 per cent) and Croats (0.9 per cent).

About 5 percent of the people who took part in the census refused to declare their ethnicity.

Montenegro’s largest town remains Podgorica with 187,000 inhabitants, or 30 percent of the country’s population.